Skunk season has officially begun

Hello everyone. Justina (Mom) here. The boys have graciously allowed me to hijack their blog on the occasions that it makes more sense for me to tell the story.

Skunk season got its official start here at Morning Bray Farm Wednesday morning. Whisky was the lucky recipient of his first skunking. The fact that Kassie wasn’t involved is a mystery and a miracle.

What happened just before that is worth telling too. Kike woke me up twice – the first time around 3 a.m. and the second about half an hour later – and was trying to tell me something. I just know it. She was whining and chuffing the way she used to before we had a doggie door to tell me that she needed to go out. The doggie door was open, so I knew that wasn’t it. Was someone hurt? Did Timmy fall into the well? Both times, I got up, walked around the house and checked to make sure that everyone was fine. I never thought that the problem might be outside. Was she really trying to tell me that there was a skunk outside? Good girl!

Fast forward about 45 minutes or so. I’m falling back to sleep and I hear Whisky barking outside. That’s not a good thing at 4:20 a.m. At that time of night, there’s nothing to bark at except for nocturnal animals. Like skunks. Knowing what happened the last time I heard one of the dogs barking in the middle of the night, I immediately jumped out of bed to find Whisky running down the hall past me and into our bedroom. If you haven’t had the pleasure, the toxic smell hits you like a freight train. Why is it that the dogs insist on retreating to the safety of the place that we like to sleep?

And poor Whisky. Naturally we were a little excited and eager to get him OUT of our bedroom and into the garage. Perhaps our voices were a little louder than usual. Thing is, if you talk to Whisky AND you happen to raise your voice at the same time, he freezes. He won’t move. One inch. So we realized we had to dial it back a notch. And with gentle coaxing (while we’re silently screaming inside our heads), we get Whisky into the garage for his skunk treatment.

The first step to addressing a problem is admitting you have one, right? World, we have a skunk problem. Don (Dad) has officially declared war. We set a live trap last night. Have you ever wondered what the experts suggest for skunk bait? From the Havahart website:

Oh Lord, I feel for you. We still have a couple of months before the critters come out but I dread it. Why oh why can’t the dogs remember for one second that it’s nasty? And I’ll throw in one more trouble causing critter….the porcupine. Spring can be vverrrrry interesting around here. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the story….

I can’t believe you don’t have a video, or at least pictures, of this event to share with us. Didn’t you get the memo that all bloggers are required to sleep with their camera on the nightstand at the ready? Rookie mistake. I’ll forgive you this time.

Thanks CeeCee. I hope we do too. While Don would like to shoot it, I can’t bear the thought. We’re going to try to release it… we’ll have to drive it at least 10 miles away so that it doesn’t come back. I should mention that the trap was empty this morning – bread with peanut butter is still there. 🙂

We have pesty raccoons around here and we trap them and move them to a new space and my husband is always afraid we’ll catch a skunk … now how on earth do you release it/move it without it spraying you?

Very carefully! To move a skunk in a trap, quietly drop a sheet over the trap, pick it up gently without shaking or jerking. In order to spray, skunks have to raise their tails, haunch up and aim. If the trap is low (it is), and the skunk is unable to to raise their tail or turn their back to you, they most likely won’t spray.

Oh my! Luckily I have never been skunked (knocking wood now) but I have been near someone who has – Is your nose working Ok now? And I’m with you – trap and release. If you have a pick-up truck, that is. Certainly wouldn’t want skunkerella in the trunk of a car :p

Yay, a picture of you! Hi Justina…. *very* nice to meet (see) you!
o-boy-o-boy-o-boy…a SKUNK!! Poor you…we had a close call a number of months ago when our dog, Roxy, was lunging at the back door and, thankfully, we looked prior to letting her out. HUGE skunk waddling around on our back deck…fortunately he has not been back.
Great story-telling, by the way…I was right there in your hall watching Whiskey freeze while you and Don were trying restore calmness while trying not to breathe through your noses (LOL).

Loved the “Timmy in the well” reference…we use it a lot around here, when excessive amounts of barking occur. 🙂

Oh my you had me laughing. Poor Whiskey. And of course he was going to run straight to where it was safe! Ha Ha Thankfully we haven’t had many skunks here. Whew (whiping my forehead). Every so often run comes around, but goes on about their way. Now we do have racoons every night. Would much rather deal with a coon than a skunk! And the ‘Timmy in a well’ comment had me really laughing!